The Emptiness of the Human Race
On the first Easter
morning, according all four canonical Gospels, Mary Magdalene and other women
came to Jesus’ tomb for the anointing of his body. Unexpectedly, these women
discovered that the tomb once laid the body of their master had become empty.
Out of fear the women ran away from the tomb. The reason that caused the women
to flee from the tomb is due to the emptiness of Jesus’ tomb, a phenomenon that
they did not expect to encounter on the first day of the new week. And who on
earth in the first century would imagine or anticipate that the dead body of
Jesus would be disappeared from his tomb!
Covid-19 has
entered the world since 2019. Unexpectedly the virus has steadily pushed the
human race to the periphery. Indeed, the powerful virus has forced human beings
to face its vulnerability and, above all, to erase the false image that human
beings are invincible. Simply put, through the encounter with the super-powerful
Covid-19, the human beings, regardless their noble status and wealth, have
become the outcast, the voiceless and the untouchable. Antonio Pernia believes
the world only changes when it is no longer seen, viewed and analysed from the eyes
of the centre but the periphery. Since Covid-19 arrives on the stage, Pernia’s profound
thought has become a reality. Stated
differently, people are now touching the inner core of their beings: the
emptiness of the humankind. All of a sudden, the human race discovers how
powerless and vulnerable they are. Pope Francis has a very vivid statement to
describe this mental stage of humanity since SARS-CoV-2, “[The virus] exposes
our vulnerability and uncovers those false and superfluous certainties around
which we have constructed our daily schedules, our projects, our habits and
priorities.”[1]
Indeed, the invisible SARS-CoV-2 has defeated the visible human race city by
city, state by state, nation by nation. Many cities and countries in the world
have fallen into the hands of Covid-19 armies. Subsequently, many countries and
cities are under lockdown or enhanced community quarantine; the Philippines and
Tagaytay, Australia and Central Australia, the USA and California, to name a
few. Wherever the coronavirus is, the freeway or the public place quickly turn
to an empty stage of the theatre at a very late evening. Covid-19 has indeed
caused the crowded St. Peter’s Square of the holy city, New York City that
never sleeps, and the capital Manila overcrowded daily with jeepneys to become empty like ghost
towns. Like the women who discovered the emptiness of Jesus’ tomb on the first
day of the week, the human race has dramatically and fearfully discovered their
emptiness. While God sent the angel of the Lord, according to the Gospel of
Matthew, to roll away the stone that covered Jesus’ tomb to display the
emptiness of the tomb, Covid-19 is the one that rolls away the stone in order
to disclose the emptiness of humanity.
Having discovered
the empty tomb, the women fearfully ran away from the scene. Fortunately,
according to Matthew, they encountered the risen Lord on the way. Only until
the moment the women felt vulnerable, did they encounter the risen Lord.
Likewise, only until the moment the human race faces its own emptiness, does
the techno-sapiens run away from its
pride, ego and greed. As they are running from the shadow of humanity, the human
creatures encounter their Creator, the Healer who alone can spare the human
race from the attack of Covid-19. In this sense, the celebration of the Easter 2020 amid Covid-19 pandemic has become a
significant event for every single individual faithful, because Easter
signifies a new life, new awaken, new enlightenment.
God the Creator or
the Father of Jesus really has a sense of humor and a surprising way to
dialogue with the creatures. Jesus from Nazareth died on the cross and buried
in the tomb. The Jewish authorities believed by suggesting the man to be
crucified on the cross, they had surely got rid of a thorn on their flesh. But,
no! God the Creator had raised Jesus from the dead.
Likewise, the
invisible novel coronavirus race, SARS-CoV-2, has defeated the visible human
race. Covid-19 unexpectedly causes the pride, the ego and the greed of humanity
to collapse. Covid-19 strips off the false image of the human beings that they
are invincible. The deadly virus has changed the direction of the human race;
from techno sapiens, the human beings
are now converting to homo religious.[2] We
now keep running away from our own empty tombs, “our daily schedules, our
projects, our habits and priorities.”[3] Fortunately,
the more we run away from our tombs, our shadows, the more we encounter the core
of human beings, that is, we are only one of the creatures on the earth. SARS-CoV-2
race has set the human race back to its original place.
Let us continue to give thanks to God the Father that while we are under the lockdown, enhanced community quarantine, we have also encountered the risen Lord in own our ways!
Michael Nguyen SVD
Easter Vigil 2020
[1] Pope Francis, Why Are You Afraid? Have You No Faith? (Rome, March 27, 2020)
[2] Edgar Javier, The Power of God’s Silence (Divine Word Institute of Mission
Studies, April 10, 2020).
[3] Pope Francis, Why Are You Afraid? Have You No Faith?
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